Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“I think you need to contact the owner and complain,” I quipped from behind the door.
“Very funny, wiseass.”
My face hurt from smiling. “Am I supposed to just stay in the bathroom?”
“Well, this is a problem, because there’s no fucking vacuum here.”
“Isn’t it the owner’s responsibility to stock the place with necessities?”
“We have a cleaning service that comes when it’s rented out, so no.”
I really wanted to get dressed. But that required getting to the bedroom. I’d only come in here with two towels and had walked in barefoot. “Am I trapped indefinitely?” I asked.
“I thought I could clean up all the pieces before you came out, but it’s not gonna happen without a vacuum. The shards are too small. Are you covered?”
“Yes.”
The next thing I knew, he’d opened the door and scooped me up. I felt weightless in his arms, the denim of his shirt rough against my skin. I breathed him in, but tried not to make it obvious. Evan carried me down the hall to my room, his boots crunching over what seemed like hundreds of pieces of glass.
After he placed me on the ground, Evan looked down at what was probably a stunned expression on my face. I cleared my throat, tightening the towel around me. But before I could say anything, he walked away, slamming the door behind him.
It might’ve seemed like a simple act, but being in his arms for those seconds had completely undone me. My heart raced. In all these years, I’d never had that kind of close contact with him. It seemed crazy to think he’d never held me like that before, given how close we’d been. But he and I had never actually been more than friends, so why would he?
I wasn’t prepared to feel him against me like that today, and my heart certainly hadn’t gotten the message that it meant nothing. Forcing myself to shake off the weird emotions bubbling to the surface, I got dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater. I added heavy boots for my treacherous trek through the hallway. I was already late to visit my mother.
When I emerged from the room, Evan was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t sure whether to feel relief or disappointment.
Then, just as I opened the front door to leave, Evan came toward me holding a vacuum. “Borrowed this from the neighbor,” he explained.
“Oh good.” I exhaled. “Anyway, I’ll be out of your way. I’m heading out to hopefully find another place after I visit Mom.”
“Whatever you want.” He heaved a sigh.
The pissed-off look on his face made me want to laugh for some reason. I was terrible, still wanting to giggle over his collision with the light fixture.
Evan narrowed his eyes. “I know that look, Chloe. Say what you wanna say…”
“I mean, we all knew you were hard-headed…” I snorted.
Evan rolled his eyes. “You can go now.” He walked past me in a huff.
Chapter 5
* * *
CHLOE
The moment I stepped into the facility where my mother now lived, I could smell disinfectant. At least they kept the place clean. But this certainly wasn’t where I’d envisioned her living out her last days.
I made my way down the hallway to her room. When I opened the door, I found Mom staring blankly at the television.
“Hi, Mama.”
She turned to me, her eyes slowly widening. Did she recognize me?
“Hi, Judy,” she said after a moment.
Judy. My heart clenched.
One of the workers walked in shortly thereafter, and I introduced myself before taking a seat in the chair next to my mother’s bed.
“How is she doing?” I asked.
The woman smiled. “I did her hair.”
She’d styled my mother’s graying hair up in a twist. It reminded me of the way she’d worn it on her wedding day to my father. A bittersweet feeling filled my chest. But I forced a smile. “It looks nice.”
“She seems happy today,” the woman added.
“Well, that’s the best I could hope for.” I smiled again sadly.
Actually, that wasn’t the best I could hope for. There was so much more I could hope for. For starters, it would be really great to go back to the time when my mother hadn’t lost her mind, a time when my parents were still together. A time when my sister, Fawn, hadn’t fled town just to get away from the pain of it all, and a time when I didn’t feel like a stranger in my own hometown. A time when I’d had a place to go on Christmas instead of feeling depressed over the holidays. Oh, and a time when I wasn’t accidentally living with a man who’d once rejected me. That would be great, too.
“It’s so good to see you, Mom,” I said, rubbing her hand. My gaze moved over the photos on a shelf nearby. They were mostly of my sister and me. None included my father, per my request. I couldn’t bear the thought of her looking at his photo and perhaps remembering him for a fleeting moment as her loving husband. The truth was anything but that. Maybe it was cruel of me to hide family photos that included him. It was possible they could’ve sparked some good memories, too. But what if she remembered him, got confused, and then somehow realized he’d married someone else? That thought devastated me, and I wasn’t willing to risk it.